Cold Boot .. raid 0 fails but restart fixes

[dsaffell]

I have a new x79 build that is having a cold boot failure .. bios is in Raid mode and the latest intel f6 irst were installed during windows install from a fat32 formatted bootable usb flash drive.. I have the asus p9x79 deluxe board... It has 2 controllers intel and marvell everything works perfect after 2nd start... its just the first start... now.... and hasn't givin me any random restart failures so far after I reinstalled windows I reinstalled to try and solve... this is a new system.. I have had the cold boot problem since I got it.... I reinstalled the sytem does this with just windows installed... no updates or fully updated... tried older irst versions.. different video drivers.. firmware updates... I have the newest BIOS (0906) for the motherboard, and I have tested the RAM many multiple passes.... different slots , 1 ram 2 ram 3 ram ... all the combo.... they're good...


The cold boot happens like this...

bios screen -> Marvell screen shows my 2 storage drives -> then intel raid screen shows my ssd (single non member raid os and apps drive)..and shows one of my 2 raid 0 on the intel port drives... I have tried these on different intel ports they are sata3 7200 ncq barracuda 64mb cache 2TB drives..they are gpt and I have tried the raid from the intel (control+i) and from the irst software inside windows... I have tried the enable and disabling of everything writeback cache.. they are on sata 2 ports... tried sata 2 and sata 3 cables... ...one drive is missing and it says "raid ...failed"... then I power off (power button or reset).. and then power on raid shows as normal and goes to the windows boot manager screen I select start windows normally then it fires right up... and runs hard.... 3d batman for hours on end... runs all night...tried cmos clearing video card in other slots...

I need the Raid 0 for uncompressed video editing per Adobe requirements... I havent put any video on the drives yet... because I wanted to get this fixed ... I dont know if it will destroy or corrupt the video files the Raid 0 shows up fine on the 2nd boot... I need this problem fixed..... also... the 7200 saegate that disappears is not always the same drive...

should I try putting power cable to the raid drives on a different power cable ... there is a bluray and a card reader also taking power from the same cable (it has 5 power leads)

the ssd always shows up but its on a different power cable... but it is the OS drive and a non member Raid drive on the intel sata 3 number 1 port...

I heard it could be the SSD still.. and that I should screw with the voltages by boosting them a little... but I dont know which bios settings and how much..

I've tried no usb except mouse and key board .. ASUS don't even know.. What should I do? buy an external case remove the hard drives off the intel... and try the asmedia esata ports.... I heard the Raid will be much slower..... I am getting reads of average 350 mbps in hdtune on raid 0...
Does anybody have a reliable raid 0 on intel controller? I will still be backing up but i dont want a failed raid every morning...

 

[tokencode]

It almost sounds like the drives might be still spinning up or something when the RAID BIOS tries to detect them. On a warm boot they would already be spun up and might not be an issue. Can you try delaying getting to the RAID BIOS as a test, possibly be enabling memory test or something like that? Not a great fix, but at least it might tell you what the problem is.

 

[dsaffell]

It almost sounds like the drives might be still spinning up or something when the RAID BIOS tries to detect them. On a warm boot they would already be spun up and might not be an issue. Can you try delaying getting to the RAID BIOS as a test, possibly be enabling memory test or something like that? Not a great fix, but at least it might tell you what the problem is.

Thanks for replying! I am gonna swap out the hard drives since I have 2 more of the exact same on the marvell ports. I want to try the boot delay boot I dont know if there are setting for that... I've been through the BIOS head to toe, so I know whats theres I just dont know what everything is for.. Could you tell me what to look for? I am gonna try just since it is intel matrix rom isn't it before boot order??? Like if I tell the boot order to go to the ODD first, its not even gonna do that until after the marvell check then the intel check which the raid will fail .. I did yesterday twice here--> cold boot 1: I control alt deleted during/after asus bios logo..(before marvell screen) and did this a couple times to get the drive up... it seemed to work as the raid0 showed normal and a boot into windows... couple restarts in there ...all good... then powered down went took long nap... cold booted again ...number 2: tried the control alt delete thinking I at least had a work around...then "Railed Failed" control alt deleted, raid failed, again, raid failed, then power button reboot, failed, reset button failed, power button .....boom! Raid Normal..... windows boot manager... select normal start fired right in the hole! Everything working fine... except I am suspicious of sony card reader... it has 4 drive letters... and one has exclamation in drive manager.. I only noticed after I reinstalled windows security updates as I found no updates didn't help... I updated..I tried updating sony card reader driver... but windows says it has the right one.... I will try to find manually and reinstall.. the card reader is on the same sata power cable as the raid as is the ODD (5 power ends= 2 to both raid 0 drives, one to ODD, One to card reader (the 5th and last one on the cable), and one open (4th one which is second to last on the cable) ..
I've tried the cable changing just not the drive swapping because Ive been stubborn to think why a drive could work for hours on end and still be bad?? But it might be just a little slower getting power the second drive and since the the Intel is the test right after marvell which is right after asus BIOS logo It goes by superquick about 4-6 seconds from power button to intel "press control + I" screen... I'll let you know.. bout the swapping...I am gonna look around for something to make a delay with before the intel rom.. If you know of something specific ....(actual parameter name in BIOS) that will delay it please let me know...thanks again for writing!

 

[tokencode]

I don't think you'll find a "delay" setting, if you have a memory test option, try turning your memory test on at boot, that should give you a few extra seconds.

 

[dsaffell]

I finally fixed this .... disabled the Marvell Op ROM... all this does is skip the marvell raid screen (the one after the asus logo screen) now it goes straight to intell raid screen and raid shows normal everytime.... cold boot, warm boot ,reset..machine runs perfect. Not sure if the marvell still checks its drives in the background ... or if it just dont check the marvell controller... but the marvell controller IS enabled just not the op rom..and I have 2 storage drives on them that show up in windows... ... ssd is on intel non member raid... but still has trim... the 2 TB seagates that make up the raid 0 are fine and reads about 350mbps from HD tune and give me 3.6 TB total and format with 64K stripes... the 3930K chip renders a 19minute FHD AVCHD with color correction and titles, overlays, and warping effects in about 15minutes into a YOUTUBE H264 FHD (just different codec container). I know there are many different configs that have different solutions... but I feel ASUS should know to suggest things like this for cold boot problems ...

 

[tsnor]

I don't think you'll find a "delay" setting, if you have a memory test option, try turning your memory test on at boot, that should give you a few extra seconds.

lol, this is exactly what i used to give a corsair force 120 SSD time to init on a thinkpad t61p. With memory test the SSD was detected, without it the SSD wasn't. After a few days of this I ditched the sandforce based drive for an itel320 which worked fine without the mem test.